Nathan Sanderson

Wow. That’s the only word I can think of to describe getting slammed into the ground by the cost of printed material at this university. I used to believe in the two certainties of life: death and taxes. I think now I’ll revise my certainties to include death, taxes and unbearably high book prices.

As a point of clarification, the bookstore alone is not responsible for the molestation of the common student. It is the University, a giant machine of cash-gobbling manipulators striving to squeeze every penny from every student who dares to enter the doors here, that decides how best to exploit its victims.

For example, one of my classes requires a packet; a volume of material approximately 350 pages in length that is produced at the University Copy Center. From the $0.03 per page cost generally charged for copying, one could assume that such a volume, with a 6 percent tax included, should cost approximately $10.68. No sir! For this volume, every student in my class is “required” to pay $26.95 without tax. The shipping cost for these volumes has to be about $16.00 per packet, if the University isn’t pocketing the rest (yeah, right). It takes approximately 15 minutes at a slow walk to go from the University Print Center in Ag Hall to the Bookstore in the Student Union. If a box of packets contains 25 volumes, and the workstudy slave spends that 15 minutes to deliver them, he must be receiving this shipping and handling fee.

Punching a few numbers, one could figure that this student should receive about $400 to deliver that box of 25 packets. At a per hour rate, he should get approximately $1600 per hour. An average 20 hour work week would earn him $32,000! I gotta get me a job like that! Here’s the kicker: many of the packets were copied incorrectly! At least three volumes that I have seen have the same page on the back as the one printed on the front. A well-oiled machine at work.

The University is very much like a drug addict. First, they get a taste for your money, then they need a little more, and a little more, until suddenly they are so addicted to your money that they have to have it. This is where the screwing process starts.

E-mail comments to Nathan at [email protected].